Monday, 16 November 2009

• Pac-Man Ate My Homework! Video Games as Classwork

  I was an information technology major in college. We liked to refer to ourselves as "computer science majors that get out of the basement" (sorry to any CS majors out there). We love our computers and gadgets, but we much prefer the glow of the console to the lines of code filling a computer screen. Because of this, we end up with so many gaming references in assignments, not just from ourselves, but from our teachers as well.
  
  

  
  

  From a sales pitch assignment (this was not me): "I'm here today to give you my idea: a time travel device using a wet beaver, some soap, and a hula hoop! ... Okay, maybe just a ninja game for the DS, how's that?"
  

  
  

  During one of my required classes in my major, we had to do presentations on new technology. One kid did a presentation on Rock Band. In a programming class, our first assignment was to code up a picture in a Java applet. I made Pac-Man.
  
  

  
  

  The kid in front of me made a Triforce symbol.
  

  
  

  The teacher for that programming class taught game design at a community college as his other job, and showed up wearing WoW T-shirts to class. Our final assignment was to make a text-based dungeon game. My friend and I made sure to throw in as many video game references as possible: descriptions of Pokemon statues, Commander Keen jokes, and a "Sorry, the princess is in another room!" line. We got an A on our final.
  
  I'm sure that there were many more references in assignments and classes, but these are the things that stick out in my head the most. I won't even get into my AP Computer Science class in high school where we played WCIII when the teacher left us alone, or my Databases teacher who had a thing for zombies.
  
  

  
  

  Real teacher quote: "A zombie protest: 'What do we want? Braaaaiiiiiinnnns. When do we want them? .....braaaaaaaaaaaaiiiinns.'"
  

  
  

  Have you ever used video game references in an assignment, or had a teacher who loved them?
  

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